A/N: Yes, Gregory, Brett, Wallace, and Parsley are human counterparts of Mr. Blik, Gordon, and Waffle from Catscratch, and Pony from It's Pony. Enjoy this episode. This one's going to be, comparatively shorter than the last one.
The Louds were having breakfast. Meanwhile, Brett was watching a news story on the big screen TV, and Gregory was preparing to read a newspaper in his bedroom. Brett saw something shocking on the news story. He turned it off after he saw something in particular. But as for Greg, the moment he saw something similar in the front page's photo and was reading the title and the story he was shocked.
"LOOOOOOOUDS! Louds!" Gregory shouted! He ran down the stairs into the dining room. He drew them over to the living room. Nobody paid attention to the following person, but Brett walked past them over to the kitchen with a shocked face.
"What's wrong, Gregory?" Asked Lynn Sr.
"Your boy, your only 11 year old laddie child-he's dead." Gregory said with a broken voice. The Louds were in disbelief. Gregory then rose the newspaper and showed it to all of them. They were beyond shocked.
In the photo, one man was being taken away by police officers, while Lincoln was in his Smilodon form, he was lying on a stretcher, being loaded by two men into a van, his head had a big hole in it, surrounded by blood, caused by a big bullet. The title read "Insane gunman arrested for shooting mutated boy."
Everyone gasped. Lily understood too well at her age. She started to cry. Rita tried to hold her own sadness while comforting her own daughter. Pretty soon, mostly everyone else cried. Lynn Sr. however fell to his knees but didn't express his sadness further beyond how his eyes looked and an open jaw. A single tear shed from his left eye. Meanwhile, Lynn Jr. was looking at the newspaper's image closely, at Lincoln's Smilodon form.
"No. Lincoln. No." She said in a low voice. She held the newspaper to her face. She buried her face in it. Seconds later, she started to weep calmly. That day, the day he left with the Santiagos, that was the last time she saw him alive. She wasn't there with Lincoln when his death happened. She first thought she could've made a difference. But then she heard some calm but angry breathing. She became curious and turned around. It was an angry Brett. "You." Suddenly, he slashed the left side of her face with a steak knife! She screamed in pain! Brett calmed down and held himself back while there were gathered gasps from everyone else. Lynn Jr. looked up at him, breathing, he locked eyes with her. The steak knife had blood, speaking of blood, Brett looked at the scar he made across the sports girl's face. Unlike the flesh that did get slashed, her eye was all right.
"What have you done?" Brett raised his voice a little bit there and threw the knife behind him. The sports girl was getting up.
"I didn't-I didn't mean to. It wasn't my fault. I didn't-" She paused for a second. "I did nothing."
"Exactly! And in doing so, you betrayed your true status to live as his sister! Betrayed Lincoln!"
"You speak anything but honestly here!"
"You can't escape the truth. The guilt. Lincoln's dead because of you!"
"You killed your own brother."
Unnamed month 01, Tuesday 08, 2020
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Lynn Jr. sprang up in her cot. She looked around herself. There were empty cots. Soon, she turned her head to the entrance to the dining room. Most of her sisters were there, with most of the Preston brothers, looking at her. Her parents left for work previously. She turned her head some more and saw that Brett was 3 feet away from her. They were all surprised. She soon came to a realization.
"Well, look who finally decided to get up." Brett who changed his expression, said apathetically in response to her.
"You scared us. At least we were finished having breakfast." Said Lola, slightly annoyed.
"How you holding up there, Lynn?" Asked Parsley.
"Mm. I'll be, fine, much." Lynn darted her eyes left and right. Brett walked up the stairs. Gregory approached her and sat down on her cot as she was getting out.
"Good morning, Lynn Jr."
"Good morning, Gregory."
"You sure woke up late today. Not too late, though. Breakfast hours are still here." He wagged his finger as he spoke there. "Had a bad dream there, didn't you, lassie?"
"Mm, yeah." She said, feeling a little bit down.
"Oh. Don't you worry about a thing. Why don't you talk about it to me, and I can try as much as I can to help you out?"
"Mm, I don't know. I came to your house, 2 days ago, and I haven't fully known you."
"Right, but I'm still willing to help you out. I'm sure I'll understand what you explain. And I'm here to give you comfort if needed. After all, I did end your mistreatment at the hands of my own brother, Brett."
"Right."
"Me and most of my brothers, have been asking people on one of those subsequent days after we first met, (after Brett told us about you) we were hearing good things and bad things about you and your family, including Lincoln, but I believe you're all good people at heart. All of us do. Meanwhile, Mr. Ai later heard everything from us about all of you."
"You really believe in the good in us?"
Gregory closed his eyes and nodded. "Count on it. Aye. Uh, a few of you were more problematic than the others, Lola is one of them. But I believe in the good that you all have regardless."
Gregory got up, and walked away, while Parsley guided Lynn so she could change in his bedroom while he waited outside.
*cut to Lynn Loud Jr. in the basement.*
"I miss Lincoln. I do. I wish I could visit him today. I'm glad that he healed up so quickly, big cat problem aside. I should've done better for him many years ago."
"When did it all go wrong? Your relationship with Lincoln." Asked the interviewer.
"Um, it-it's been so many years. I have that mixed with many memories, especially my memories of my sports achievements and anything related to sports, and memories of other things, especially times that I couldn't stand Lucy's behavior. You know uh, we've been roommates for years. When you put all that together, I-I'm not exactly sure what exact moment happened that planted the seeds for our relationship getting—soured. Obviously, we live in a dysfunctional family."
Brett was listening to Single Ladies through noice-canceling headphones. He was going around his bedroom, looking for something. He was almost rummaging left and right. Lori, Luna, and Luan were coming up to his room. Brett was searching and searching. By the time the 3 girls came in, Brett opened a chest that had weights, and a weight bar had heavy weights put in. Despite how his physical build looked, he pulled up the bar, groaned almost mid level during it while Lori called out to him, he quickly turned around and threw the bar right in the girl's direction. They froze in shock, their jaws dropped and their eyes shrank, the bar pinned them to the floor. They struggled to get it off. Brett was surprised to see them, he took off the headphones on his right ear, he sported an annoyed face, came over and removed the bar, setting it elsewhere. He sighed in annoyance and helped them get up one by one.
"I wasn't listening. Noise canceling headphones. I didn't hear anything any of you might've been saying. What are you here for, you walking farts?"
"Walking farts?" Lori was almost medium offended by that.
"Listen, Mr. Preston, we were wondering if you can help us out with a few things. I need to go see a few friends of mine at 11:00 AM, Luan needs to go see Benny at 10:49, Luna wants to go check out one of the stores that has instruments, those require transportation. Do you think you can help us out, also do you think you can help us on dropping off a few things at the post office?"
"Ooh, I can't. Not that I'd be interested anyway. I've got so much of today to finish all the work I appointed you family of walking farts. I got to uphold my part of the challenge I took Gregory on."
"Oh yeah, that's right." Said Lori, putting a finger to her chin. "So sorry. Although you don't have to be mean about it."
"As if you're any better than me, Mrs. Phone Addict? As if. Come back when I'm actually interested. If you earn the like from me."
The girls walked away annoyed. Brett looked around himself. He sighed. Where was that thing he put?
Meanwhile, Wallace was petting Elsie while he was in her enclosure. Elsie snorted happily, getting the positive attention from the man she thought of as her own father, human or not human. Gregory was playing the bagpipes, he was doing good. Parsley was in his bedroom, he thought on whether he should go to the arcade first, get to know Leni first, or if he should get to know the Regulars first.
Gregory paused for a moment on him playing the bagpipes. Leni momentarily passed him saying "prancy prance unicorn" four times. Gregory became, curious. He approached Leni and asked, "Uh, excuse me, Leni. I overheard you saying 'prancy prance unicorn.' What's that about? Was that from a show you used to watch when you were four or something?"
"Oh no, no. That was just something I learned from a talking cat named Gordon about how his neighbor, Kimberly used to say that. She said that indeed." Leni then became confused and put a finger to her chin. "Or was it, 'fancy pants unicorn?'"
"Gordon? A talking cat?"
"Yeah, from an alternate universe called a Catscratch universe. There's more than one of those universes apparently. Didn't you watch the news? We stayed over for the time being on the property of 3 talking cats."
"Oh, right. I don't really watch news stories on TV, Leni. Rather I read newspapers. Aye."
"Well, see you later, Mr. Preston." She turned around, walking into Brett's path in 2 seconds, before he pushed her by the face out of his way.
"Get the heck out of my face, twit." Brett said tranquilly. Gregory glared as he walked away and shook his head. Regis meanwhile was in his bedroom, taking a nap. He woke up and looked around himself.
Soon, someone knocked on the door. "Come in." He said. Lynn Jr. opened the door and entered. Regis' face was half-lidded through it all.
"Hiya, Lynn."
"Hello, there. Mr. Preston."
"Oh, oh no. I haven't known you for a whole month, but there's no Mr. Preston around here. I think two of my brothers will tell you that too. Please, call me Regis." Regis sat onto the bed and patted the left side next to him offering a seat. Lynn shrugged and sat next to him.
"So, what's on your mind?"
"Listen, you haven't met Lincoln for yourself, and do you think you can give me suggestions on how to gain Lincoln's forgiveness? Obviously, we've all had a bad history of wronging him."
Regis rubbed his beard. "Hmm. You're right, I haven't met him for myself. But I'd have to think about examples for howyou can get him to forgive you. Let's start with your own likes and dislikes. What do you like first?" Before Lynn Jr. could answer that, Luna came along and stood at the doorway.
"Uh, excuse me. Mr. Preston."
Lynn Jr. was a little bit annoyed that she got interrupted.
"Yes, Luna? Also, tell this to all of your family members in the future, I think two of my brothers will agree to the following, there's no Mr. Preston around here. Just call us by our first names."
"Got it, dude."
"What are you here for, Luna?"
"So, I heard that you used to be studying therapy in college, before you stopped doing that. I heard you studied a lot of it. Do you think you can set up therapy appointments for most of the family?"
Regis put a finger to his chin and thought to himself. "Actually, I can. In fact, you can spend your appointments here in my room. It's quite tidied up. And I've got time off for today and tomorrow." Regis thought to himself again. "In fact, I'll split up the family. One portion for today, and another portion for tomorrow. Your parents are at work, but maybe I can schedule them for later today or tomorrow. For the most part, I'll go from oldest to youngest. Today, I'll start the appointments with Lori and it'll end with Lynn Jr (if it doesn't end with your parents afterwards). Then I'll start listening to information and guiding people tomorrow starting with Lucy and ending with Lisa. In fact, we can start in 10 minutes. I got to take care of something with your sister here, you'll all get sessions free of charge. Then I got to set up my schedule. Go spread the word."
"Got it. Thanks, dude." Luna went off. Regis looked at Lynn Jr. again.
"So, what things do you like, really like, and love?"
The sports girl didn't answer the question. She spotted something on his night
stand. It was a framed photo of him with his arm over a woman wearing a salmon pink short sleeve shirt and light beige shorts with medium brown wavy hair, they were smiling and posing together for a photo. Regis noticed, became scared and acted fast, grabbing the photo.
"Oh, uh, that's nothing. That's nothing you need to worry about. I shouldn't have that on my nightstand at all. I should've thrown that away years and months ago. No I shouldn't even be looking at it." Regis frantically slid open his mirror closet, unlocked a safe and quickly put the photo in there, before locking it, much to the Loud girl's confusion.
Luna went out of her way spreading the word to her sisters. She texted her parents about this too. Gregory, his other brothers, and Jin heard about this, what with their presences in different places at the time. Regis meanwhile, listened to Lynn Jr. speak about things, and then set up his own schedule and got a clipboard with paper sheets and a pencil and eraser, before using up the remaining time he had for himself to watch a TV (this wasn't mentioned previously, but the brothers and their Chinese butler all have their own TV's) until appointments were ready.
Regis went through a lengthy process for a couple of hours, listening on as the first five Loud girls spoke details about themselves, their talents, relationships with Lincoln and each other, etc. He was getting dumbfounded and shocked by some details he heard. The Louds were, still quite unusual people for him, despite the things he heard from residents in their town.
*cut to Luna Loud in front of the backyard door. By now, she was done with her appointment.*
"Regis came off as-quite a contrary therapist when it came to reaction. Well, I did think that. You should've seen his expressions when I was speaking up. But hey, at least our sessions came free. Hmm. Too bad, Lincoln's not here. At least he's still alive. Thank God for that."
Hours passed, most of the Preston brothers interacted with the Loud girls. Wallace casually spoke with Lana about random topics while he was on a tab on his laptop, he was focused on buying zoning rights, there was another tab that was related to alpacas. Gregory interacted with Leni as he was making his bed and then sat down. Regis interacted with Lori about some details about his life, and they talked about food, while Parsley was talking for a short while with Luan, Luan made some jokes while they were at it, and Parsley cracked up at them.
At some point, half of the Loud girls went out of the house for their own reasons, Brett didn't care any less. Parsley watched a show with the twins in his bedroom, Regis took a nap some more, Leni was sewing something while Gregory was playing the bagpipes, Jin was reading a book. Brett meanwhile, was doing the one for the many work tasks he had initially set most of the Louds to as he went. Later on, everyone had lunch in the dining room, and before then, the brothers were preparing some instruments and speakers onto their vehicles, a drum set was fastened and secured in Wallace's truck.
Afterwards, the brothers were heading out. In fact, Brett was on break from his house work today. Luna noticed this. She quickly approached them.
"Hey. Hey, dudes, where are you going?"
"Simple there, Luna. Me and my brothers are heading to the park. We're our own band."
Luna gasped. "You're a band?"
"Mhm, of course, we're merely a band who performed in our hometown above occasionally, we're not really a contract signed band, not one of those famous bands, not one of those bands who travels internationally, or domestically." Said Wallace.
"Plus, we perform for free. Most of the time, my brothers do it for free. I play the tuba most of the time for money in terms of myself. Plus we're really a lot more like musical players than songwriters. For all our talents and strengths, we're not exactly among the best in songwriting." Parsley said.
"Our band is called 'The Highlanders of America!'" Gregory proclaimed, pointing his right finger with his arm stretched up. Brett facepalmed at the name.
"I've always, always been telling Gregory to change the title of our band, I don't want to have to clarify to people every time that we're not from Scotland, nor that we're descended from Scotland. It's too misleading."
"Well who knows, Brett. Maybe we are descended from Scotland. I've certainly got more of the spirit in my obsession with Scotland."
"Gregory, face it. You're not descended from Scotland. Dad sure has no physical recollection of connection of any kind to prove otherwise. You're simply obsessed with Scotland, okay. But that's okay."
"But, nobody's ever gone out to prove it. Maybe we do have Scottish heritage in our blood that hasn't ever been discovered for years. And sooner or later, it's waiting to be found." Gregory then looked at Lisa, writing on a notepad. "Hmm." He thought.
"Oh, dudes. Can I play alongside you? You have learned that I play rock and roll. I'm a member of my own band. I think I could help you bring more attention."
"Oooooh." Wallace said.
"Interesting." Said Parsley.
"You look promising. I have heard about your reputation in that field." Gregory added.
"Hmm. You're not playing in our band." Brett responded, and everyone became surprised.
"Why not?"
"First off, Luna, obviously, I don't like you. Mostly no Loud family member gets to play in our band. And another reason why you're not playing along with us, is because, even worse, you're bisexual. Straight people only!" Luna's jaw dropped. Meanwhile, Gregory and Regis looked at this with their eyes half-lidded in annoyance.
"You're off the band for today, Brett." Gregory said.
"Huh? What is this? Why are you committing mutiny? I started this band!"
"You and I have our own halves of control for this band. Brothers, shall he be off the band for today, and shall Luna play alongside us?" His brothers nodded. "Then it's settled."
"Are you kidding me? It's bad enough I have to do my part to provide for a bisexual girl for the time being, but this? What the heck?"
"Brett, come on. Get with the the times, man. Not being a straight person in sexuality is, irrefutably, not right in the Lord's eyes, but nothing should stop us from gaining positive things with anyone who's not straight. The world's comparatively more accepting of people of other sexualities than it was back then. Even Dad had become used to watching Schi-" Gregory paused for a moment, changed his focus to the Loud girls and saw some of the younger girls there. He quickly came closer to Brett and went for his ear.
"-Dad came to be more respectful of the fact that people in the LGBT community exist, and even he started watching Schitt's Creek in 2015." He whispered and then backed up. "But that does not mean your break time is revoked. Make good use of it, before you get back to work. See you later, brother. Luna, do you know how to play the drums?"
"Count on it, dude!"
"Well come on, then."
"Thanks, Gregory!" She did the rock on sign with her hands. "Don't do that in my house!" Luna and her sisters were startled from Gregory shouting that. "Sorry I scared you all, but Luna, you may have a good heart, but do not ever do that hand sign in my house. It's satanic."
"It is?" Luna was surprised.
"Aye. Indeed. Being bisexual is bad enough, no offense. There is no need to taint your reputation in the eyes of the Lord further with that. My dad taught me that hand sign shouldn't ever be made. I'll read to you a source telling why that is, later on. Now I'm not sure, but maybe that hand sign is blasphemous. Come along. Good-bye, everyone."
Luna followed Gregory and his brothers soon enough. Brett was feeling angry, beyond frustrated, and he was also feeling disgusted as he watched them leave. Not only did he have to provide for Luna and do so much house work, but he was thrown out of his own band, and she, a bisexual girl, was allowed to play alongside them, and she did a satanic hand sign, and she would be playing his own drums. How could this happen?
Luna rode in Gregory's car with Parsley, who drove off, followed by Regis and Wallace in their own vehicles, as Brett watched from the doorway in contempt for Luna, squinting his eyes. The group drove their way to the park and brought out the instruments. But it took most of the group to bring out Brett's drum set. The brothers verbally interacted with Luna throughout the way to and while they were at the park.
The cameraman focused the camera as the band was talking to each other about something related to playing music, while they were in a remote spot. Then, Gregory was instructing Luna on something for a while. Everyone took their places. Luna was sitting on a chair that was also prepared, she was going to play the drum set, Gregory had bagpipes, his arm held onto his side a tambourine, Regis and Parsley were holding electric guitars, and Parsley had a tuba. Gregory counted from 10. Pretty soon, Gregory was playing the bagpipes. 5 minutes later, Regis played his guitar.
4 seconds later, Parsley played the tuba. In seconds later close to each other, Luna and Wallace played their own instruments. They were making an alluring, catchy tune. People were getting drawn by the noise.
They were getting attracted. Gregory noticed this. He held his bagpipes and started playing the tambourine. Regis played the chords on his electric guitar for a good tune, quite drawn into it.
The band played out some more for 3 minutes. During that time, each of the band members took their own timed cues for playing instruments. Luna sure knew her cues and was having a good time playing the drums, and at the end she was the last playing member, she played shortly on the drums and ended the song with a strike on a cymbal. Everyone congratulated Luna on her first success in playing with them.
Luna was starting to feel good about herself. Then the brothers were huddled up and discussed themself about what song they should play next. This went on for 10 minutes, until they all agreed on something. Luna wondered throughout this.
Then, Gregory motioned for her to come over. She looked blankly for two seconds, then came along. Gregory spoke a long set of instructions for playing the drums. Luna nodded.
Everyone got back to their places. 3 seconds later, Wallace was playing his electric guitar for 12 minute. Soon, Gregory joined in playing the tambourine. 17 seconds later, Regis played his electric guitar.
9 seconds later, Luna and Parsley were the last to join in playing their instruments altogether. They were playing another song. They were doing more than good. This last for 3 minutes.
Parsley played a tune with his tuba, and Gregory ended the song with beating his tambourine once. Everyone applauded each other. Parsley patted Luna on the back in congratulations for her playing. After initial surprise, Luna smiled and gave a thumb's up to him.
Gregory put his hand to his chin and thought to himself. Gregory spoke to Luna about lots of instruction on drum cues for different songs, and he'd instruct her verbally, everyone else heard this and came to nod in agreement after giving it their own thought. Luna was reluctant to go through all of that, but after thinking about it for 3 minutes. Gregory gave her instruction, as he taught her how to do her drum cues for a couple of different instrumental songs, the instructing took a while, but she denied practice on the last one, she said she learned how to do that for herself years ago, although Gregory gave her instruction on her timing for her playing and when to sing on the song.
*cut to Luna.*
"So years ago, Gregory and his brother, Brett started a band. They'd gotten fairly popular there. And yet they're content with the jobs they do have when it comes to their wages. That's not to say, 3 of the brothers have been making money simply by playing their own instruments along with selling recyclables. Regis, Parsley, Wallace. And, Gregory told me on the way here, despite what they were raised in, their band is not a Christian band."
The band played on their first song, playing on their own different cues, Luna played alongside them. The brothers commended Luna on doing her part more than good and for her positive music playing. Then they started playing another song. Meanwhile, Brett and a few of the older Loud girls were taking in the pets that belonged to them as the McBride parents dropped them off.
The Loud parents had forgotten to ask to have their pets brought over on their first day back in town. Upon rushing to his room and locking himself in, Brett expressed disgust and muttered in frustration and disgust. 2 gay men. He hoped he wouldn't have to deal with them again, 3 minutes later, he thought about Luna, he thought he should go to the park and keep an eye on the band in secret, but then he remembered he still had work to do, he didn't want Gregory getting on his case about it.
The band was playing another song for 3 minutes, 53 seconds. They concluded their next performance. Luna was relishing from playing music. The brothers spoke some positive words to her once again.
Once again, they played another song for four minutes. Luna did good on her cues. After that, Regis spoke up. "Hey there, Luna, you're not so bad yourself. Who would've thought you'd have proven yourself today, regardless. You're fine as a person so far, under the circumstances as a drummer. You are pretty worth it to be playing alongside our band."
"Thanks, dude."
"Why don't we take a break for today? What do you think, Luna, dudette?"
Luna laughed. "Sure, I'm up for that." All the other brothers poke up in agreement.
Luna looked around at them in admiration. "I'm starting to feel so welcome among them." Luna's voiceover said.
*cut to Luna.*
"They can be tolerant of me, they can be, understanding of me, when it comes to something, you know my sexuality. None of these dudes thought I was beneath them. There was no hesitation, no qualms about me playing along. I had such a great time with them. And we're all musicians too. We certainly have that in common."
The band sat down on a bench together conversing among themselves, talking about many moments in their lives. Luna sure wasn't wasting time with them at all. The brothers also heard about a number of interesting things in Luna's life as she spoke about them. Meanwhile, Brett watched in the distance from behind a bush.
He squinted his eyes as he glared at her.
"Stupid, pretentious, disrespectful, wicked Luna Loud. Look at my brothers hanging out with her. Why do they give her the privilege of playing with them? What does she have that I don't? What a sexual freak." He spoke lowly. He snuck out and went to make his way back to the house.
Luna socialized some more with the brothers for hours. Then they played randomly with their instruments for almost two hours. This was for fun. Parsley made a really good solo on his own while playing the tuba.
After that, Luna socialized with most of the brothers while Gregory went off to get lunch. Later, he came back with three boxes of different types of pizza. One had mushrooms and green peppers, one had olives and beef, and one had jalapeños and spinach. They ate together, as they interacted some more.
*cut to Luna.*
"My bro Lincoln should meet these bros. They're all older than him, but I'm sure they'd really hit it off. I wouldn't want Lincoln to get any wrong ideas from Brett. He doesn't look someone I can be comfortable with Lincoln affiliating with. But at the very least, I can see that Lincoln has, a positive idea on what people he can trust and which ones he can't, for the most part."
Afterwards, Regis and Wallace went off to scout ahead for a part of the park that was filled with people, guided by Luna. They found a good part, reported this to everyone else who stayed behind. They made their own few long walks to get the entire drum set by two separate portions, much to Regis' dismay. A few people started to notice them, some more started to notice Luna was among this band.
The instruments and speakers were set up. Gregory smiled at the initially small group gathering in front of them. Luna shook the drumsticks. Gregory counted down from 10.
The band played their first song. It was attractive to the audience, and the music was drawing people. They were doing good. They were cheered and applauded, while the camera recorded them in progress.
There were murmurs from people who were starting to see Luna in the band. Wallace and Parsley gave out their own statements of thanks.
People were gathering in front of them.
The crowd cheered. Gregory closed his eyes and nodded. Wallace held up his fists grinning with half-lidded eyes from the bottom. Parsley and Regis were casual about the positive response, giving out statements of thanks and appreciation. Gregory was feeling good about themselves.
The band proceeded and played their next song. More people were attracted by it as they came forward to listen. Among them were Jason Green, Carol Pingrey, Samson Hamilton, and those 4 girls Savannah failed to interact with. After their performance was done, they were applauded and cheered again.
Luna was feeling occupied and satisfied. She sure was distracted from the fact of her disowned status with Lincoln. These brothers did her a favor indeed. More than a favor.
From the distance, Brett watched them play from behind a bush, he squinted his eyes at Luna as he looked at her in contempt. She had to be playing alongside them, not him, playing his drums. The band played their song until it was over once again. More cheering and applause ensued.
"What's your band called?" A crowd member asked.
"I am Gregory Preston, and these are my brothers, Wallace, Regis, and Parsley. My other brother, Brett, he's away doing house work. This is Luna Loud. She's not an official member. She's actually, a guest. Our band is called 'The Highlanders of America!'" He raised his arm and pointed his finger up as he said this, and this planted amazement in the crowd.
"But we're not really descended from Scotland. We moved from Oakland, Missouri." Said Wallace. This caused a collected "oh" from everyone else. A few people even laughed lightly.
The band then proceeded to play another song. More people came along and formed a bigger crowd. They were quite drawn to the band playing. Once again, they were responded with cheers and applause.
Oh yes, it was already becoming like it was back home in Oakland for most of the Prestons present, when it came to their band. They played a few more songs, and the people loved them. Then came the very last song. The Highlanders of America started playing Working for the Weekend by Loverboy, this was the song that Luna practiced playing the drums on before today.
The band variably took turns singing some lyrics at times, before they all sang the lyrics that had the title in it, followed by the applicable next three lyrics in it. The crowd cheered for them one last time. By now, Brett was gone and previously went off to continue his house work. Some members in the crowd raised their hands and chanted the band's name three times.
The brothers relished the attention and praise they had gotten. Everyone gave statements of thanks to the crowd. It took a while as they interacted with several members in the crowd. After that, they packed up their instruments and drove home.
The brothers were dining at Lynn's Table, Luna sat alongside them too.
"Luna, you literally rocked, lassie. I think if I heard you playing the electric guitar on speaker, you'd put the loud in the word, loud." Said Gregory.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, but thanks, dude."
"You are the best guest we've had on our band. And you're the first. You made that go out with a bang. Splee!" Wallace raised his fists as he said that.
"Not bad indeed, Luna. I heard some messed up things from you, but you did great for a guest. You are a musician daughter of your own dad, I think a better one than he is, you're popular-ish, and it showed." Regis said.
"I would love to do duets with you sometimes. Maybe I should teach you how to play the tuba too."
Luna laughed at Parsley's statement. She didn't see herself as someone playing the tuba. "Thanks anyway there, Parsley."
"And I heard you play the harp too. Regis told me, how about that?"
What Parsley said caught Luna off-guard. She remembered that she does do that. She thought about her learning the tuba from Parsley. Maybe she can get used to it.
"Thanks for giving me a day to enjoy, Preston brothers. You are a pretty good band yourself. Me playing alongside you was totally worth it."
"And people were starting to notice us. We're off to a promising start in our lives in Royal Woods. Hey, Luna, do you think you can get your dad to arrange for us to play at the restaurant every now and then?"
"Oh-ho, slow down there, Regis. Most of us have other jobs on our own. Plus, remember, most of the time we do it for free."
"Yeah, but it couldn't hurt to play here anyway."
"I didn't see a stage, and plus people just want to eat here. I don't think that's a good idea." Wallace said, although he didn't know for now that bands can actually play somewhere people eat. This led to a civil debate between him, Gregory, and Regis over the idea of playing here. Luna ignored that and focused on the positive time she had. She smiled.
*cut to Luna*
"Today sure was, something more then soothing. The brothers I played with are cool dudes. They seem open-minded, they're compassionate, they can stand me and my family. Who would've thought we'd be given such a great gift of neighbors? But if you ask me,—I think they need lyrics in their songs so they can attract people more. I think I can do a good job of helping them out as a songwriter."
Luna began to interact with the brothers some more, as they talked about random topics.
A/N: On the night of October 17 on Twitter, it had come to my attention that Lincoln had gotten a new love interest in the live-action series, The Really Loud House, and glaringly, it's not Ronnie Anne. That's going to piss off a lot of Ronniecoln shippers, and for good reason. I'll just change something I said in the second chapter of my first public fanfiction to not watching applicable new episodes of The Loud House anymore, as well, after I watch the following episodes I'm overdue on, Present Danger, The Orchid Grief, & The Loud Cloud (as well as change a little bit about my preference of Lincoln-centered episodes before I watch those). However, Sunny Eclipse did say on Twitter that the really loud house isn't canon to the animated series. Although she didn't answer my question if a crew member confirmed this. But I didn't take it well when I read about the post of Lincoln having a new love interest, but I was calm much, when I first learned this detail related to the live-action show. I give credit to That Engineer for the detail of the family being split in two portions, although I still don't like the guy. Be absolutely honest. What did you think of my spacing here?
Stay tuned for the next episode.
